This week’s exclusive track is a gentle slice of acoustic neo-soul by Geoff Ong, a New Zealander based in NYC

hursday is, as you know, track exclusive day here at Songwriting. This week’s exclusive first listen comes from Geoff Ong, a Kiwi singer-songwriter who’s based in New York City. Geoff’s most recent single was The Last Song I’ll Ever Write About You, and now Songwriting is proud to present the follow-up.

Geoff originally trained to be a mechanical engineer, but after discovering the music of Chuck Berry, Otis Redding and Michael Jackson, he realised that his true calling was as a musician. So he upped sticks to the USA, where he attended the world famous Berklee College of Music. He’s since released three EPs: Streetlights, The Snorlax Mixtape and Pictures.

As for How To Be Alone, Geoff says it’s “a song I wrote about the difficult period of figuring out how to be by myself again after a break-up. It’s a weird time in anyone’s life, because you start second guessing how you feel about yourself, the past, and anyone new you meet with whom you think there might be a spark. You start to wonder ‘Do I really feel something for this new person? Or am I just using them to fill a gap?’ It’s kind of a mellow and pensive song, which was I guess how I was feeling at the time!”

We reckon How To Be Alone could appeal to fans of artists as diverse as Ed Sheeran, Michael Kiwanuka and The Magic Numbers. But as ever, you can decide for yourself…